B-Greek: The Biblical Greek Forum

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?

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ἐν οἷς ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἐτύφλωσεν τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων εἰς τὸ μὴ αὐγάσαι τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ χριστοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ. I see that God is capitalized in the Codex Sinaiticus ἐν οἷς ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος
so does the Greek support what Wakefield, and Adam Clarke imply?
4 that by the God of this world the supreme Being is meant, who in his judgment gave over the minds of the unbelieving Jews to spiritual darkness, so that destruction came upon them to the uttermost. 2 Cor 4:4 But God hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world, Theophylact, and Augustine, all plead for the above meaning; and St. Augustine says that it was the opinion of almost all the ancients. (Wakefield, Adam Clarke Commentary) John 12:40

Hi Roy,
I don't have access to the Codex Sinaiticus. Is this the version you have access to? Or are you using the Nestle-Aland Text, or the UBS text, or the Byzantine text, or what? I think it would help us to know exactly what text you are referring to. In the quote you gave, I didn't see any capital letters. Most versions are going to be incredibly similar except in a few rare cases of textual-critical issues, so if you are referring to a text that is particular to a certain manuscript or version, it would help to tell us exactly where you're getting it from. You don't need to give the whole publishing information, just the title. I'm going to assume, based on your post, that you are looking specifically at some copy of the Codex Sinaiticus. Are you wondering if, in the Codex Sinaiticus, θεος is capitalized, this would imply that the scribe(s) of the Codex Sinaiticus therefore interpreted it as referring to the "supreme being"? But that's a separate issue from what the Greek text means. Whether ὀ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου refers to God or to Satan (or perhaps to Caesar? or the Roman Empire? or to mystery religions?) is really a matter of the context (of this paragraph, of the whole book, and of the Greco-Roman world in the 1st century A.D.). As fascinating fodder as that might be for a good drawn-out theological battle, it's probably not something that the Greek text itself will answer, and certainly not from the grammar or the punctuation (as I'm sure you're aware, the original manuscripts and earliest copies most probably did NOT have capital letters or any kind of punctuation).
Instead, I can say that whoever ὀ θεὸς του αἰῶνος τούτου might be, αὐτος is responsible for ἐτύφλωσεν τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων and εἰς τὸ μὴ αὐγάσαι τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ χριστοῦ, who happens to be εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ. As a matter of interpretation, you would have to decide (outside of B-Greek) if it makes sense for the supreme being to blind people to the τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ Χριστοῦ. But you CAN say from the Greek text itself that ὀ θεὸς του αἰῶνος τούτου does indeed do exactly that (according to this passage).
I hope this made sense and was helpful.

Finally, "ο θεος του αιωνος τουτου" simply means "the God of this age", where "του αιωνος τουτου" specifies which "θεος" is being referred to. It is left to the context to determine who it really is, as Jeffrey has described.

I know what you intended to convery, but what you in fact said is the opposite of what you meant. What you meant was that the earliest manuscripts were all majuscules or uncials (upper case) and not lower. There was therefore no distinction between θεός and Θεός since it would have been written ΘΕΟΣ.

I know what you intended to convery, but what you in fact said is the opposite of what you meant. What you meant was that the earliest manuscripts were all majuscules or uncials (upper case) and not lower. There was therefore no distinction between θεός and Θεός since it would have been written ΘΕΟΣ.

Oh? Actually I can't see how to read what I wrote with opposite meaning but never mind haha..

I know what you intended to convery, but what you in fact said is the opposite of what you meant. What you meant was that the earliest manuscripts were all majuscules or uncials (upper case) and not lower. There was therefore no distinction between θεός and Θεός since it would have been written ΘΕΟΣ.